What Olympic Athletes Eat

What Olympic Athletes Eat

What do Olympic athletes eat? Do they scarf down a combo with burgers and fries on a Friday night, or is it antioxidants, all the time?

According to Vox.com, depending on the sport, athletes competing in everything from ski jumping to cross-country racing are consuming anywhere between 1,300 and 7,000 calories a day. Sports nutritionists are on-hand to how many calories these athletes actually need to build their strength while remaining light enough to fly fast enough to win.

If an athlete is getting ready to complete a long endurance event like a 50 km ski track, they can be found loading up on carbohydrates to give their muscles fuel, in the days or day beforehand.

But not always. It all depends. When training days are lighter and more technical, protein and vegetables can be more the focus.

Related: How Your Fingers Can Determine If You’re an Athlete

Basically, most Olympic athletes are eating normal, nutritionally balanced meals filled with things like quinoa, broccoli and thinly sliced beef, and perhaps they’re eating less food than you’d anticipate.

One thing remains pretty consistent from sport to sport, and that’s avoiding processed foods.

Of course, elite athletes don’t really need to worry about eating what they want when they wish, as their very likely to burn it off. But for the sake of their nutrient intake and overall good health, most of them are avoiding those frozen pizzas and creamsicles. Most of the time.

They are human, though and the occasional churro and ice cream is also on the list. After all that hard work, who can blame them?

Photo credits: Ververidis Vasilis/Shutterstock.com

 

                                                                                                  

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